Weather

Yea in Altamonte Springs, my power flickered for a second.

Now I have a day off and all this junk food and beer. Only effects of Matthew are my stomach hurts from eating all these mesquite bbq chips that were 2 for 1 at Publix =[

Um, no.

The Tsunami in India would have pushed that window in, knocked the entire house down, and mercilessly ended that camera.

The downstairs flooded. All my electronics are safe. (fuck yea!) Some shingles missing off the roof. Place looks basically intact otherwise.


Even have electricity and (drumroll) internet.

So relieved, I was bracing for worse.

Leto Eu`Acumen said:

The downstairs flooded. All my electronics are safe. (fuck yea!) Some shingles missing off the roof. Place looks basically intact otherwise.


Even have electricity and (drumroll) internet.

So relieved, I was bracing for worse.

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Sorry to hear about the flooding, but it did look like it was going to be worse than that from what the news was showing. Glad you're safe.

No power, water, phone where I'm at in NC. 4G just started working about a half hour ago. A part of the fence fell over, shed roof blew away and some vinyl siding blew off, but nothing too major. Fence is probably the most time consuming fix since a post broke and will have dug up and replaced.

You can remove the drywall that was underwater and any floor covering if it's not tile, spray everything with 10% bleach solution, then button it all back up. Obviously waiting for everything to dry out and maybe a second application of bleach just to be sure. It's a pain in the butt to be sure, but not impossible. Also, a lot of homes in Florida are concrete block and stucco, so the structure is not compromised.

If you can dry it out fast and completely, mold becomes less of an issue. Sitting in a damp environment for weeks or months is where you can really get a mold problem. You would have a bigger mold problem in a house that didn't have AC for a few months, than you would a house that was flooded for 2 days, but was dried out within a few days afterwards. As an example, all the abandoned homes as a result of the housing crisis circa 2008-2011 needed to be gutted and rebuilt on the inside from mold damage.

Servpro and Service Master are both ok. I have worked in restoration( Fire/Wind/Water) for over 20 years for multiple restoration companies including 6 office years at Paul Davis in the 90s. They will all do the same thing which is pull floor level coatings and drywall up past saturation point and install in dryers/sumps to drain and move air then come back and spray microban/bleach compounds. The issue is past that you have corrosion in electrical which many repair contractors will argue the wall is half out just go ahead and remove the rest. Then many policies today are code policies which allow upgrade to code. That means complete rewires/panel movement and more structural changes. Then almost every house has HVAC and Kitchens first floor which leads into full cabinet/mechanical replacement and full replacement of appliances and electronics. By the time it comes around to the end all that high cost water extraction eating up your policy structure/content allowance was spent to save stuff that was going to be a loss anyways. You can save 10-20% on policy loss by just skipping straight to contractor demo.

Water damage companies rarely save anything at all. They just make it less messy and give people peace of mind someone showed up fast and something is being done.
Not saying to let an water logged house sit for weeks just realize it is unlikely with feet of contaminated water anything will be saved more than just hiring the lawn guy to come in and demo the first floor with a dumpster at 25% the cost.

Big Phoenix said:

Maybe a dumb question but how do you fix up a house that was in a 3-4 flood? Isnt it mold city afterwards?

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Pull the drywall and they make special stuff you spray and treat it to stop mold and fungal growth. Get all the wet insulation and stuff out.

The power pole at the end of the neighborhood I'm staying in has been snapped in half laying over the road since the storm. I saw a truck over there this morning though so maybe by the time I get off work power will be back. No phone nets as of last night, but could make calls and texts.